Hot List

The Best New Hotels in the World: 2019 Hot List

For this year's Hot List—Traveler's definitive picks of the best hotel openings around the world—our editors and contributors scouted hundreds of properties across six continents. What follows are the top 75—those that define why we travel now and determine where we're going next.

By CNT Editors

April 16, 2019

Our team of editors and contributors criss crossed the globe to put together this year's Hot List. We started with nearly 500 hotels, and whittled it down to the 75 below, found in 33 countries: in major cities, the dreamiest beaches, and places travelers have rarely heard of before. Our army of hotel sleuths assessed everything from Wif-Fi strength to rooftop pool scene. Ultimately, the hotels that land on this list are the absolute best of the best; the game-changing, boundary pushing, vacation-making openings that are so good, we’re already dreaming about going back. Scroll down to see the complete list. And peruse all of our Hot List galleries to find out what we loved most about each winner.

All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Courtesy Omaanda
hotel
Omaanda, Ondekaremba, Namibia
$$$
Namibia’s hotel scene is booming. And among the dozen newbies, this impossibly sleek place from Belgian hotelier Arnaud Zannier, the man behind the stylish Phum Baitang in Cambodia and 1898 The Post in Belgium, stands out for its elegance and focus on conservation. Zannier arrived in Namibia following the advice of Angelina Jolie. She introduced him to her friends Rudie and Marlice van Vuuren, who helped him secure a vacant expanse next to their sanctuary. The Zannier Reserve now abuts the van Vuuren’s domain, so guests get near-impossible access to important conservation projects including rhino, elephant, and cheetah rehabilitation. The lodge itself, however, is almost as impressive as the wildlife. It’s a sexy synthesis of everything a top hotel should have now: locally inspired design, a meaningful setting, a serious spa, and a firm focus on food—many ingredients, such as the feta cheese, are produced nearby. On top of the sanctuary access is the chance to shadow the van Vuurens in their conservation work. But a week could easily be spent just taking in the bush views from the bathtub. Nowhere else in southern Africa offers such a considered approach to immersive safari while staying somewhere so aesthetically sophisticated. FLASH POINT Styled like traditional tribal huts, the 10 lodgings demonstrate a careful attention to design—down to the ceramic espresso cups—and guests can book the entire place. +264 81-127-2425; zannierhotels.com. From about $657 per person per night.
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Amit Geron
hotel
The Jaffa, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Tel Aviv, Israel
$$$ | Gold List 2023 Readers' Choice Awards 2023
The historic Jaffa neighborhood has become a cachet of Tel Aviv cool, loaded with designer boutiques, cocktail bars, and creative locals inside its 4,000-year-old walls. It’s appropriate, then, that the hotel that shares its name should act as a microcosm of the area. Star architect John Pawson and his team spent 10 years creating an aesthetic within this former convent-turned-hospital that played to Jaffa’s old/new dichotomy. In the lobby, remains of a 13th-century crusader’s fortress discovered during the hotel’s excavation are displayed alongside two Damien Hirst paintings, twin George Condo busts, and bespoke backgammon tables designed by Pawson himself. Stained-glass windows and checkered floors create a bar space that is both biblical and current—especially when beautiful Tel Avivians are sipping Negronis on the brown suede Cini Boeri Botolo chairs. In a city with a spectacular homegrown food scene, The Jaffa made a bold move placing New York’s Major Food Group in the kitchen. The rigatoni alla Norma and grilled octopus recall its Manhattan hotspot Carbone. But the way these dishes showcase the vibrancy of local produce, meat and fish means Israel remains the star. In a city that everyone’s talking about right now, this hotel has made the conversation even more interesting.
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Courtesy Mandarin Oriental
hotel
Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023
The epitome of multicultural, modern Dubai, this beachfront property is all about maximum relaxation by day and sophisticated shimmering intrigue by night. Not only does the property provide a sophisticated broad-ranging culinary menu, but also has an exclusive Club Lounge. The lobby is breathtaking from the outset with its firefly-like glow on trees adorned with 900 lights, and highlighted by the crisp white marble floor. The first venture for the Asia-based Mandarin Oriental group in the United Arab Emirates, the 256-room property was architecturally designed by Jeffrey A Wilkes, a man who is also responsible for the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. Families are well catered for here with the Little Nomads kids club offering respite for parents in need of some down time; meals are free for children under the age of four and babysitting is available upon request.
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Courtesy Shipwreck Lodge
hotel
Shipwreck Lodge, Skeleton Coast National Park, Nambia
$$$
There is remote, and then there is the Skeleton Coast, a desolate sweep of coastline along the Atlantic that feels utterly isolated. Shipwreck Lodge is from the heavily conservation-driven outfitter Natural Selection and has now opened as the area’s first polished resort with a point of view worthy of such otherworldliness. The 10 wooden cabins set against a flaxen sand dune were designed by Namibian bio-architect Nina Maritz to look much like the many ships that have run aground here over the centuries. Through porthole windows, guests view a haunting, foggy landscape that is home to desert-adapted lion and antelope. During the day, four-wheel drives whiz up and down tawny dunes, past parched terrain, and along the edge of the brooding ocean, which crashes onto marbled sand, littered with whale bones. In the evenings, after the sun has burned the mist away, fynbos-infused gin and tonics are served on the beach. When the shore gets too chilly, it’s onto dinner in the main building, where sofas, cushions, candles, and blazing fireplaces keep things cozy once the all-but-certain sandstorm hits. The lodge scene in Namibia is frenetic; this one slows things down to a speed that reminds guests they are at the ends of the earth. FLASH POINT Go for a drive down the “roaring dunes” outside the lodge, so called for the sound the air makes between the tires and the sand as a car nosedives at 180 degrees. +27 2100-11-574; naturalselection.travel. Doubles from about $230.
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Crookes and Jackson/Courtesy Mombo Camp and Little Mombo
hotel
Mombo Camp and Little Mombo, Okavango, Botswana
$$$ | Gold List 2020 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Slap-bang in the middle of the Okavango Delta on game-rich Chief’s Island, this is Wilderness Safaris’ star safari lodge, magnificently reimagined after a recent overhaul. The number of regulars who choose to return here year after year is almost as impressive as the astonishingly good game viewing on this 111,000-acre concession. So how do you improve on such a popular classic? This was the challenge put to architect Nick Plewman and interior designer Caline Williams-Wynn—and the result is a glamorous showstopper with the comfortable feel of a pair of soft Italian-leather boots. It is distinctly vintage (antique brass; Chesterfield sofas), yet slick where you want it to be, with handmade Mervyn Gers ceramics, Belgian-linen sheets on hand-stitched, crackled-leather beds, and an iPad in place of printed information. In between game drives, guests can take private yoga classes, relax in the library, swim lengths in the lap pool, or sign up for a firm-handed massage in the Africology spa. The food has gone modern, with nourishing buddha bowls and blow-out burgers with truffled fries, and there’s no pressure to take meals communally as before, although a party atmosphere pervades in the boma, which has been fashioned from wood recycled from the old camp. From about $1,800 per person per night.
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Courtesy Zuri Zanzibar Hotel & Resort
hotel
Zuri Zanzibar Hotel & Resort, Tanzania
$$
Safari in Uganda and Rwanda has taken off these past few years. East Africa needs a place where travelers can pull off the old bush-to-beach after gorilla-trekking that's on the level of the One and Only by Virunga, and closer than the hideaways of the Seychelles. With Zuri, guests can be atop those sugary sands within two hours of leaving the jungle. This breezy resort is delightfully tropical, even if its profusion of banana palms feels similar to the overgrowth guests would have been scrambling through earlier, to spy on silverbacks. Those who've been to this ancient island will know the second they step out from the open air lobby onto the tiered terraces, overlooking thatched roof yoga pavilions down to the cerulean blue, that this is a game changer. Unlike the fusty ’70s retreats that still serve bad prosecco in swim-up bars nearby, Zuri is incredibly considered. A web of pathways weave through the dense bush, cutting past spice gardens (the source of that lingering vanilla and cumin scent) to the 55 standalone bungalows with outdoor showers of stone and bamboo walls. The indoor/outdoor vibes of the place extends to the dining room, where a selection of featherlight, hand-woven basket and cocoon-like lamps hanging over the tables are designed to catch the breeze off the Indian Ocean, in a sway as gentle and constant as the roll of the waves visible from the table. Zuri instantly makes Zanzibar a bush-to-beach option to rival the level of Mozambique and the Seychelles. FLASH POINT Book a western facing Garden Bungalow to catch the African sunset from the comfort of day loungers on the terrace. +420 226-202-981, zurizanzibar.com; doubles from about $410.
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Courtesy andBeyond Tengile River Lodge
hotel
andBeyond Tengile River Lodge, Sabi Sand, South Africa
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019
South Africa’s Sabi Sand Game Reserve is one of the country’s most competitive parks for slick lodges; andBeyond knew this when launching its second outpost here, in December. The hook this time? Exclusive access to areas for prime lion, leopard, and cheetah viewing, an increasingly valuable selling point as the game parks become more crowded. Nothing kills a buzz like waiting bumper-to-bumper to see a hyena. The veteran company negotiated for sole access to an entire 25,946 acres in the southeast of the reserve, including parts of neighboring Lion Sands and Charleston crisscrossed by both the Sand and Sabi rivers. It even closed down some of the rooms at sibling Kirkman’s Kamp to ensure fewer game-drive vehicles. It doesn’t hurt that Tengile, meaning “tranquil” in Tsonga, is next-level handsome too. Each of the ten guest rooms is at least a whopping 2,150 square feet, with an indoor-outdoor living space and a glass-walled bathroom with lots of forest-green marble. Feast on global tapas for a late lunch poolside before treatments at the Africology-stocked spa, which has a sleek gym and full-length lap pool. Bespoke sofas and chairs throughout the lodge are angled for appreciating the 180-degree view that often includes elephants and their babies drinking in the river. The landscape here is so phenomenal you may not even need to leave the terrace to brag about seeing the best wildlife at cocktail hour. FLASH POINT The interiors by Michele Throssell include terrazzo floors with stones from the railroad that linked Johannesburg’s gold mines with Maputo. +27 11-809-4300; andbeyond.com. Doubles from about $1,440 per person.

Tommy Picone/Courtesy Bvlgari Hotel Shanghai
hotel
Bulgari Hotel Shanghai, China
$$$ | Gold List 2020
The past 18-odd months have seen a bonanza of hotel openings in China’s largest city, notably the Capella in the French Concession, the Middle House in the central Jing’an district, and the astonishing Amanyangyun on the outskirts. Bulgari stands out for its ability to channel the city vibe without losing a sense of the brand's Italian DNA. Foster + Partners designed the tower as a shiny mirror in which to reflect Shanghai’s wild eclecticism and energy. Inside, an immaculately choreographed tussle between Italian and Chinese design is enacted in marble and bronze versus silk and lacquer. There are marvelous views in every direction, though there is no need to take an ear-popping elevator ride to the upper levels to peep at Shanghai’s history. Those familiar with the brand will notice hallmarks of the jewelry house’s other five properties here. The exterior shimmers like a case filled with gems. The 82 rooms—including the ornate Bulgari Suite, said to be the biggest in the city—follow a palette of dark wood and balanced monochrome. Chef Niko Romito’s lasagna, like at the Bulgari hotel in Beijing, is the dish to order at Il Ristorante; you’ll also want to do lemon gelato at Il Giardino, prosecco at La Terrazza, and a knockout negroni at Il Bar. Directly across from the garden is Shanghai’s former Chamber of Commerce, also part of the hotel and redone with a whiskey bar and a superb Chinese restaurant. Doubles from about $770.
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Simon Brown/Courtesy Soho House Mumbai
hotel
Soho House Mumbai, India
$$
As in other Indian cities that flourished in the days of the British Raj, Mumbai’s old-fashioned club culture is alive and well—across well-heeled generations—in a way that would have made the retired majors of the era scratch their heads in wonderment. But this town has never had an establishment like this before. The familiar Soho House aesthetic (let’s not say formula) works wonderfully here. Nothing has been reinvented: There’s still the same combination of bars, restaurants, theaters, and breakout spaces found in the group’s outposts from London’s White City to West Hollywood. But each Indian twist freshens everything up nicely: the printed textiles in vibrant yellows and reds; the locally sourced wicker-ware and hand-made furniture. Some may gripe about the location, in an 11-story, Art Deco–style tower beside Juhu Beach, not far from the airport. But the fact is that the city’s creative center is shifting northward, and this is now the place to be. It’s a bejeweled stone’s throw from Bollywood. Time will tell how enthusiastically membership is taken up, but you can’t help thinking that Nick Jones has once again gotten it spot-on. FLASH POINT In a departure from Soho House tradition, the Big rooms here are indeed really big, and the ones to book. +91 22-6213-3333; sohohousemumbai.com. Doubles from about $230.
Sui Sicong/Courtesy Amanyangyun
hotel
Amanyangyun, Shanghai, China
$$$
Work began on this Aman 2,000 years ago, in what is now Jiangxi Province, 400-some miles west of the hotel’s present location on the outskirts of Shanghai. Intrigued? The story of Amanyangyun could hardly be more extraordinary. In 2002, Ma Dadong, a self-made billionaire, took a break from business in Shanghai to visit his parents. When he went back to work he took with him some curious souvenirs of his trip—50 disassembled houses from the Ming and Qing Dynasties and 10,000 camphor trees, the oldest of which were dated back two millennia, ancient earth still clinging to their roots. All were slated for destruction to make way for a dam. The houses were reassembled and transformed into 13 antique villas, 24 courtyard suites, and a ravishing cultural pavilion known as Nanshufang. Welcome to Amanyangyun. The old buildings have been cleverly complemented, extended or, in some instances, encased by new ones, discreet, restrained, and hard-edged, the work of Australian architect Kerry Hill. Nevertheless, there are certain elements of pure theater: the carpet of mood-enhancing mist that, at the press of a button, rolls across your villa’s ornamental garden, for example. Yet it is the old buildings and trees that provide the real drama here and impart a unique sense of spirituality and grandeur. FLASH POINT Nanshufang was originally a school and, in a way, still is. Here, guests can enjoy the pastimes of the Chinese literati: calligraphy, painting, music, incense appreciation and gongfu cha, or "labor-intensive tea-making." +86 21-8011-9999; aman.com; doubles from about $900.
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Chris Caldicott/Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Andamans
hotel
Taj Exotica Resort & Spa, Andamans, India
$$
This Taj outpost is set on Havelock, an Indian island closer to Myanmar than its mother country, with dense forests and beautiful beaches. And this hotel has both: In front of it, two miles of pale, floury sand drops gently into a sapphire sea, and soaring above it are jungles of giant mahua and padauk trees that have stood here for centuries. Amid the palm trees and ponds of the landscaped, 46-acre estate are 50 contemporary villas, with whitewashed wooden walls and curvaceous roofs inspired by the homes of the indigenous Jarawa tribe. All have muslin-draped four-posters and deep bathtubs from which to admire the stars through glass-paneled ceilings. Most guests spend their days reclining on day-beds beside the Olympic-length pool, swimming in the Indian Ocean, or propping up on the long bar, chatting to the friendly staff who whip up coconut cocktails and serve sensationally light crab salads, tandoor lobster, and chicken baked in bamboo stems. For the more active there’s fishing for tuna, paddle-boarding to remote beaches, snorkeling in the clear sea, and hiking in the interior with expert naturalists; others might prefer an Ayurvedic treatment in Jiva spa. No one can fail to be impressed. FLASH POINT The waters in the mangroves surrounding Havelock are rich in phosphorescent algae: go kayaking on a moonless night for the full Tinkerbell effect. +91 22-6665-1198, tajhotels.com; doubles from about $710.
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Courtesy Shinta Mani Wild
hotel
Shinta Mani Wild, Southern Cardamom National Park, Cambodia
$$$ | Gold List 2018, 2022 Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2021
There aren’t many hotel designers whose creations have genuinely made my face hurt from smiling. I first came across the work of Bangkok-based American Bill Bensley when I stayed at the Capella Ubud in Bali, a joyous feat of maximalist storytelling in the jungle. Shinta Mani Wild is an even deeper immersion into nature—specifically, the lush wilderness of southwestern Cambodia. To me, the most thrilling thing about the place isn’t that you arrive by army four-wheel-drive and then zip-wire over the forest canopy, your grins met with a Khmer G&T beside the rushing river. No, it’s the fact that Bensley bought an 865-acre swath of magical, orchid-rich rain forest between three national parks to protect it from logging, mining, and poaching. This meant I could properly enjoy one of the decadent, whimsically themed tents along the river, and the house-made herbal tonics in the thatched spa, against the happy background hum of the Raging Sister waterfall. I could thrill to the snappily dressed staff ushering me to take a river safari or eat wonderful foraged food in the main tent. Among scores of river- and forest-based adventures, the most fulfilling was joining an anti-poaching patrol team, whose sheer love for the minutiae of the jungle belied the AK-47s slung across their shoulders. Shinta Mani Wild is no airy piece of greenwashing. For all its grin-inducing whimsy, this is the real thing. Doubles from $920 (all-inclusive, minimum three nights). —Juliet Kinsman
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Andrew Loiterton/Courtesy Rosewood Phnom Penh
hotel
Rosewood Phnom Penh, Cambodia
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Once a low-rise cityscape of crumbling French colonial-era villas, brutalist concrete blocks, and an occasional pagoda, Phnom Penh’s skyline has been dramatically and spectacularly transformed by the Vattanac Tower, Cambodia’s highest skyscraper. The 39-story steel and glass structure, shaped like a mythical Chinese dragon symbolizing health and prosperity, has drawn mixed reviews but the Rosewood Phnom Penh, which occupies its top 14 floors, only garners accolades. To say that a 175-bedroomed hotel with five restaurants, swimming pool, spa, patisserie, and whiskey library feels cozy may sound far-fetched. However, awash in toffee tones with an occasional pop of rust, long on dark wood, travertine marble, creamy leather armchairs, and ikat-patterned rugs, it’s akin to staying in a very grand private residence. Art, often with a dash of whimsy, abounds. Cambodian artifacts, carved timber panels evoking the Khmer heritage, and artisanal crafts are here, there and everywhere. There’s a gallery space for contemporary artists and on arrival guests are welcomed by Hanuman, the Hindu Monkey God, a larger-than-life stainless steel wire wrapped sculpture—as well as an army of impeccable staff falling over themselves to take luggage and whisk you into the waiting lift. In a city where the blending of traditional and modern has been less seamless than its regional counterparts in Bangkok and Hanoi, this Rosewood pulls it off easily. With its star attraction, Sora, the cantilevered sky bar, there is no where else you should stay in this town. FLASH POINT Head to Sora at sunset and order a Cambodian, a blend of gin, absinthe, Prosecco, and cucumber and take in the 360-degree view of the magnificent Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers. +855 23-936-888; rosewoodhotels.com. Doubles from $225.
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Courtesy Rosewood Luang Prabang
hotel
Rosewood Luang Prabang, Laos
$$$ | Gold List 2020 Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023
Legend holds that on his pilgrimage across Asia, the Buddha stopped to rest where the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers merge, in the middle of what we now know as Luang Prabang. He prophesied that a rich and powerful metropolis would rise along these banks. Though that apex only lasted from the 14th to the 16th century, this Kingdom of a Million Elephants lived on for architect Bill Bensley, who celebrated this era at Rosewood’s low-slung riverside retreat. Minimalist it is not. Hilltop tents overflow with romantic touches—chubby camp beds, clawfoot tubs, silk and velvet accents. At riverfront villas, the rush of water somersaulting over time-smoothed boulders acts as nature’s alarm clock for an early morning meditation with monk-in-residence Sommaiy. Deep community ties mean guests take tea with Tiao Somsanith Nithakhong, a local royal turned patron of lost Lao arts, or join a procession of 800 saffron-clad novices gliding through rice fields and primary forests for a private blessing ceremony. Rosewood’s elephant figurine–festooned cocktail bar is a delightful aerie arched over the waterfall, and make sure to ask to see the secret boutique, stocked with finds like kaleidoscopic scarves woven by a cooperative of young disabled Laotians who are some of the town’s most promising artisans.
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Courtesy The Datai Langkawi
hotel
The Datai Langkawi, Malaysia
$$$ | Gold List 2020, 2023 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
There was relief in 2018 when Malaysia’s Datai Langkawi, with its nature-luxe architecture by the late Kerry Hill and jungle-meets-sand setting, emerged from an almost $65 million overhaul as wild as ever. Architecture whiz Didier Lefort upped the Zen factor, sanding back the villas’ dark wood floors, adding hand-poured bathtubs, and scattering statement artwork—including a 1,500-pound tangle of petrified tree roots—throughout the grounds. The grand zigzag steps that descend from the adults-only pool and the veteran staff remain. But there are plenty of new elements to discover: a butterfly garden and a revamped spa. Most fun is the beach club where families feast on satay as the sun sets. There are new Rainforest villas too, but still the best thing to do is to spot dusky leaf monkeys on the walk to the Andaman Sea.
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Courtesy Capella Ubud Bali
hotel
Capella Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
It’s not like Bali needed another hotel, especially around the island’s teeming spiritual hub of Ubud. But the notoriously inventive Bill Bensley envisioned something wholly divergent for this 10-acre patch of jungle north of the city on the Wos River: a fanciful take on a tented camp pitched by early-19th-century spice traders. This is hotel as theater. On arrival, visitors receive a survival kit (sunscreen, insect repellent, a map), plus a carved walking stick to help pick their way over the suspension bridges leading to 22 black canvas tents with saltwater plunge pools. Bensley’s light-footprint approach (not a single tree was felled) means the camp blends seamlessly into its backdrop, the tent walls porous to the hooting birds of the jungle. It’s ideal for those looking to approach Bali in a more conscious way—staying here is like returning to the island’s former wild self.
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Courtesy The Oberoi, New Delhi
hotel
The Oberoi, New Delhi, India
$$$ | Gold List 2020 Readers' Choice Awards 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Since it first opened in 1965, the Oberoi’s been a de facto clubhouse for Delhi’s who’s who. The capital’s most beloved hotel is fit for modern-day mughals and moguls alike. An extensive two-year refurb by Adam D. Tihany has left it thoroughly refreshed, but one thing is resolutely the same: Oberoi’s signature fit-for-a-queen service. Stepping inside is arresting—not only because of the jewel-encrusted screen that anchors the lobby but also because the hotel has a purification system that promises the cleanest air in the city. Tihany took subtle cues from the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the architect behind the layout of modern New Delhi. The 220 rooms are generously sized—taking a gamble by reducing the count from 283 paid off—and details like gilt-edged Art Deco touches and sprawling stand-alone bathtubs are suitably ornate. But what will ensure that Delhiites keep returning to celebrate engagements, host reunions, or just because it’s Saturday, are the restaurants and bars: Beloved 360 is better than ever, while newly added Omya and Chinese restaurant Baoshuan are both run by chefs with Michelin-starred spots in London. The magnificent landmark is restored as the pulse point of the city. Doubles from about $360.
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Catherine Mead
hotel
Joali, Maldives
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Joali’s strongpoint is simple: an island hotel in the relatively undeveloped Raa Atoll that’s sensible and unselfconscious, its Maldivian natural wonder combined with a Mediterranean feel (the owner is Turkish). This mood sets it apart from other Maldivian hotels, many of which scrabble about trying to reinvent the country’s Paradise Found with some trumped-up USP. The laid-back Med luxe is epitomized in the sunset-facing Mura Bar, the sky-blue shutters, wicker globe lamps, and chic cane sofas making it the hotspot for a sundowner and a suck on a shisha pipe. Every last detail is simple and delicious, down to the coconut croissants. And there’s been no scrimping when it comes to design: Istanbul-based architects Autoban, known for the extraordinary Baku airport international terminal and London’s Duck + Rice, have created 49 overwater and 24 beach villas that are both smart and vast, with palm roofs and rose-gold taps resembling giant pebbles. Slinky silk gowns hang in the wardrobe—a one-off print by Ardmore, which designs for Hermès—while the island is peppered with unexpected sculptures including a manta-ray tree house by artist Porky Hefer and an underwater coral garden by Misha Kahn. Japanese Saoke, one of three restaurants, serves 50 different sakes. But the highlight is lying back in a hammock and watching soft-bellied fruit bats swoop down while nursing a cocktail.
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Courtesy LUX* North Male Atoll
hotel
LUX* North Male Atoll, Maldives
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021
Long-time travelers to the Maldives will know the second they glimpse this Lux* that it is unlike any other hotel they’ve stayed at here, including its more traditional sister property in the south. But then, white stone villas that resemble something in Greece or Ibiza have never been done over these waters before. Isabelle Miaja, the diving-enthusiast designer who was also behind Ozen by Atmosphere on neighboring Maadhoo, wanted it to feel like the type of place Bond (Craig, not Connery) would escape to post-mission, when needing a hit of punched-up sexy solitude. Bathrooms are decidedly modern and concrete, and have tubs that sink down deep in that way only hotel bathtubs ever do. The sapphire-blue pool has pops of red and an ice-cream cart straight out of South Beach, while the Barium private dining room has aquariums for walls. And then, well, there is INTI restaurant where the eye-roll-inducingly fresh ceviche blows the typical menu of grilled fish out of these turquoise waters. This is a place where the children of families who used to come to the Maldives every year are now choosing to return to themselves as grown-ups.
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Michael Weber
hotel
The Middle House, Shanghai, China
$$ | Gold List 2021 Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
The fourth in Swire’s House Collective (after Beijing, Hong Kong, and Chengdu) is a gorgeous gauge of Shanghai’s modern zeitgeist, arranged across two towers clad in dark aluminum blinds that add privacy and seductive shadow-play throughout the day. Rich textures and subtle cultural references are combined in the lobby, which is decorated with bamboo-sculpted emerald-porcelain walls and contemporary Chinese artworks in the glow of a 3,760-piece Venetian chandelier. Italian architect Piero Lissoni continues to weave his minimalist magic in the 111 bedrooms (there are also 102 long-stay residences). Here, moody, dark woods are contrasted with pops of blue and canary yellow. Walls of windows (on three sides in the Studio 90 rooms) create the illusion of floating in a swell of skyscrapers. The complimentary Maxi Bar and oversized tassel-cord by the bed that triggers the master switch are fun touches, but the glass-walled bathrooms might be a bit too revealing for the more prudish. In addition to a modern Chinese restaurant and rustic Italian kitchen, there’s also European comfort food at Café Gray Deluxe. The city’s high and mighty have been coming to try locally inspired cocktails such as the Six God, with jasmine-infused vodka, lily, cucumber bitters, and thyme, on the large garden terrace overlooking central Shanghai. FLASH POINT Connecting the two hotel towers is an incredible subterranean wellness center with a pool, 24-hour gym, Hypoxi fitness studio, and spa. +86 21-3216-8199; themiddlehousehotel.com; from about $430.
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Diego De Pol/Courtesy Kudadoo Private Island Maldives
hotel
Kudadoo Maldives Private Island, Maldives
$$$
If anyone understands what discerning visitors to the Maldives want, it’s Lars Petre, the Swedish entrepreneur who not only developed the country’s first sea-plane company, but co-manages nine other island resorts. On Kudadoo, he has created the country’s first solar-powered hotel and its first all-inclusive luxury resort—all off a tiny coconut-forested sandbank. Arranged around a circular wooden walkway out at sea, its 15 rooms conjure spacious Japanese ryokans: designed by minimalist Tokyo architect Yumi Yamazaki from soothing wood, stone, and reed-thatch, and fronted by a wide deck, plunge pool, and ladder into the swirling blue sea. When Petre says “all-inclusive” he means it, whether that’s two-hour Healing Earth treatments in the airy spa, a butler 24/7, jetskiing and deep-sea fishing, or feasts involving fine wines (80 from Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list) and impeccably presented dishes, from light Japanese teppanyaki to Maldivian seafood curry, concocted by French chef Antoine Lievaux, who has worked for Joël Robochon and Alain Ducasse. Unusually, thanks to the 989 solar panels that roof the airy living area, there is not a single generator to be heard, just a gentle lap of waves on creamy beaches, and the occasional thud of a coconut. FLASH POINT The Himalayan salt room is the perfect morning spot to detox after a night of wine-tasting. +960 662-2000; kudadoo.com. Doubles from $3,800, all-inclusive.
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Jigme Thinley/Courtesy Bhutan Spirit Sanctuary
hotel
Bhutan Spirit Sanctuary, Neyphu Valley, Bhutan
$$$
At first glance, Bhutan Spirit Sanctuary, which opened its gilded doors last August in the heart of Paro, is very similar to the kingdom’s original luxury hotels. Like Aman and COMO, which both debuted in 2004, the hotel takes its design cues from traditional dzong—fortresses with whitewashed stone walls and flared roofs. Bhutanese hot stone baths are a centerpiece of the spa and cultural activities include lessons in archery, the national sport. But where Aman and COMO facilitate country-hopping around Bhutan’s five major valleys—Thimphu, Gangtey, Bumthang, Punakha, and Paro—via a circuit of luxury hotels, Bhutan Spirit Sanctuary wants guests to stay put and journey inward with an all-inclusive model that includes spa treatments. The 24-room resort caters to wellness junkies who want a dose of culture along with their farm-fresh food and meditation sessions. Rooms, the smallest of which are 580 square feet (double the size of COMO Uma Paro’s standard rooms), all have views of the historic Eutok Samdrup Choeling Monastery; a copy of The Restful Mind sits bedside in case the view alone doesn’t facilitate a meditative state. Upon arrival, guests perform a butter lamp ceremony and then meet with one of the Sanctuary’s traditional Bhutanese doctors. After he reads your pulse and observes your tongue, he’ll prescribe a customized program that might entail monk-led meditation, a soak in a hot stone bath, and daily kunye (Tibetan massage). Call it a new recipe for Bhutan’s famous state of happiness. FLASH POINT Bhutan is known as the Land of Medicinal Herbs. Join your spa therapist on a foraging excursion around the grounds and collect ingredients for your hot compress treatment. +11-975-827-2224; bhutanspiritsanctuary.com; doubles from around $668, all-inclusive.

Scott A. Woodward/Courtesy Wa Ale Island Resort
hotel
Wa Ale Island Resort, Myeik Archipelago, Myanmar
$$$
Myanmar’s political isolation has meant tourism has been slow to develop. Wa Ale opens as something new: a collection of slick safari tents that slip easily into the surrounding jungle, 55 nautical miles west of the mainland. This 9,000-acre private island adrift in the Andaman Sea honors rather than impedes its natural surroundings (20 percent of Wa Ale’s annual net profits go towards its conservation mission, the Lampi Foundation). Centuries-old strangler fig trees muscle up beside 11 smart tent-villas, while a pair of reclaimed-wood treehouses hover in the lush rainforest canopy. A warm sea breeze blows through the mesh windows, and mosquito nets are draped across grand four-poster beds. Bathrooms, meanwhile, have open-air showers and dark teak decks running between tropical shrubs. The only soundtrack is the clicking of thousands of cicadas through the heat of the late afternoon, and the muffled thud of macaques and squirrels acrobatically dashing on top of the main pavilion. It’s here that barefoot adventurers in board shorts and panama hats share tales of diving, kayaking, and hiking excursions at night as they feast upon barbecued seafood skewers, slow-roasted lamb shoulder, and spicy papaya salads in zingy, lime-infused satay sauce. This a wild corner of southeast Asia where time has stood still. A Bali or Boracay before the hordes arrived. Those repelled by the excessiveness and hyper-development of those islands will be mesmerized. FLASH POINT Join one of Wa Ale’s resident naturalists on a hike at sunset. +95 942-380-0224; waaleresort.com. From $395 per person per night.
Courtesy Six Senses Uluwatu
hotel
Six Senses Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2022
The rocky outcropping of Uluwatu has largely been immune from the crowds and construction afflicting much of the island, and these terraced 10 acres—built onto a towering cliff at Bali’s southernmost point—drive the sense of isolation home. The open-air lobby overlooks the wind-latticed surf, while winding stone switchbacks lead past rows of white stone villas with carved wooden doors to a wide infinity pool that stretches to, well, the infinite horizon (and beyond it, Australia). Like at all Six Senses, the focus here is on wellness, and the spa pavilion has 10 rooms for sessions with local healers or Balinese-inspired scrubs and wraps that incorporate herbs grown in the hotel’s organic garden; this is where anyone seeking physical and emotional betterment should stay while here. This fertile plot, with its own mushroom hut and beehive, also produces a good portion of the kitchen’s produce, which turns up in fresh takes on Indonesian classics—lawars and nasis—and an surprisingly sharp Nikkei-style chef’s menu (that’s Japan by way of Brazil) at the hotel’s smaller restaurant, Crudo. Not surprisingly, sunset from this vertiginous perch conjures a hotel-wide hush, best viewed while sipping a cocktail spiked with arak, the local coconut palm elixir, in the Cliff Bar, or sprawled in a chaise by each breezy villa’s own plunge pool. FLASH POINT Guests seeking deeper transformation can submit to individually prescriptive Wellness Screenings offered at the spa. +62 361-209-0300; sixsenses.com; one-bedroom villas start at $850 per night.
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Courtesy Lon Retreat
hotel
Lon Retreat, Point Lonsdale, Australia
$$
The hook of this place is how it lets us—forces us, really—to stop. Owner Claire Gemes has thoughtfully put together a relaxed retreat on the property she and her family have lived on for more than a century: 200 lush acres, hidden away on a hill by the ocean on the Bellarine Peninsula near Melbourne. Each of the seven rooms is filled with warm, earthy interiors inspired by the surrounding landscape: moody seas and rolling dark greens. Lon is a place to do everything, including rambling without a map, or nothing at all. Massages at the simple spa are very good; a soak in the mineral pool is even better. The honesty bar and Makers and Growers pantry are full of regional beers, wines, and ciders, while the furniture and art, including the over-head beach photography by Gemes’s brother-in-law, are homespun too. Breakfast baskets are filled with banana bread and granola to graze on in bed or on the balcony while taking in the views in every direction. All the talk in recent years might have been about the Mornington Peninsula, but Lon makes a compelling case for the lo-fi charms of lesser-known Bellarine. FLASH POINT The mineral-rich water used in the spa treatments is sourced from a natural rock pool on the estate. +61 3-5258-2990; lonretreat.com.au. Doubles from about $256.
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Courtesy The Calile Hotel
hotel
The Calile Hotel, Brisbane, Australia
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2022
Every so often a new hotel announces that a destination has arrived. The Calile does just that for Brisbane. Because this hotel—candy-colored but Brutalist, with no shortage of Aussie fun and cheek—is a poster child for the town’s evolution from mundane, if sunny, business capital to a tastemaking second city. Local star architects Richards+Spence gave the place three separate entrances to help truly integrate it into the buzzy James Street precinct, a once-industrial wasteland that now has more than 130 bars and restaurants. Each entrance inevitably leads to a designer’s playground of textures, styles, and colors. The vaulted lobby is cool and airy with honey-hued travertine walls and roughly hewn stone floors, softened by mid-century-modern furniture. Upstairs, the private pool deck has mint-colored cabanas and a flush of tropical plants to create a sophisticated hideaway for beautiful people in small swimsuits and large straw hats. In the snazzy guest rooms, there’s an ice-cream-parlor palette, offset with smooth concrete ceilings, that feels completely right in this sun-drenched beachside city. All have some form of balcony or terrace for air and views; those architects knew better than to rid guests of the blazing sun and bluer-than-blue Queensland sky.
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Courtesy United Place
hotel
United Places, Melbourne, Australia
$$$
Among Australian cities, Melbourne rules the design and foodie game. But until now it has fallen shamefully short on the hotel front and developer Darren Rubenstein knew it. When asked advice by a friend on where to stay in his hometown, he was completely uninspired. So he decided to become a hotelier and sort it out himself. The result is a gift to his friend and anyone planning to visit Melbourne. Rubenstein enlisted architect Sue Carr to create a four-story, glass-and-concrete new-build opposite Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens in the upscale suburb of South Yarra, just 10 minutes from the city center. Of the 12 smart yet understated rooms, those in moss-green tones have views of the gardens; the others, in shades of dusky pink, overlook the neighborhood. Every detail here is carefully considered and in line with the taste level expected in this style-driven city. There are expansive balconies for relaxing with a dram of Sullivans Cove whisky, distilled in Tasmania, and a Patricia Urquiola Redondo sofa to curl up on in the living area. There’s no lobby, just a discreet entrance, and the shadows of a custom-made Laura Woodward kinetic sculpture draw you towards the lift to your room. Each morning, a seasonal breakfast (yogurt with berries and dark chocolate) is delivered at a time that suits.
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Courtesy Paramount House Hotel
hotel
Paramount House Hotel, Sydney, Australia
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021
This place certainly doesn’t front like a standard hotel, and that’s a great thing. Creatives in all black and sharp glasses sip flat whites and hold lunch meetings over slick Mac laptops in the sun-drenched Paramount Coffee Project, ostensibly the lobby of the hotel. Wander toward the back, taking in all the mid-century olive green and exposed brick from the building’s past life as the Paramount Pictures Studios building, and make an educated guess that the woman smiling behind a desk selling T-shirts and jackets is also your check-in (she is). It’s quite the welcome to this hip new Surry Hills hotel, which not only serves to anchor an already food-and-culture-focused neighborhood but has become a de facto hang for locals—what all hoteliers want these days. Thankfully, the guest rooms are just as welcoming: Should you be suffering jet lag, just pull the blackout curtains shut; take a leisurely bath in the Japanese wooden soaking tub; settle into the insanely comfortable bed, the blush-and-blue duvet and recycled Merino throw pulled up to your chin; and pass out for 12 hours in what feels like a friend’s chic apartment. Paramount House is the only truly cool boutique hotel in a Sydney neighborhood you want to be in, with food and design to make you stay indoors all day. FLASH POINT Chef Mat Lyndsey of the city’s hip Ester runs on-site Poly, which steals a lot of the crowd from Chin Chin, an outpost of Melbourne’s legendary Thai spot across the street. +612 92-111-222; paramounthousehotel.com. Doubles from about $170.

Courtesy Casa Legado
hotel
Casa Legado, Bogotá, Colombia
$$
In a city of hotels targeted at the business traveller, Bogotá’s new boutique Casa Legado breaks the pattern. Owner Helena Davilá, who spent the past decade opening and running a string of small shops throughout the city, had this exact idea in mind—“I wanted to give the city a hotel for leisure travelers; something that would fill with people on the weekends, rather than emptying out.” The seven-room midcentury home is nearly incognito from the street; inside, a world that feels like a second home, with an eye for curated, subtly whimsical decor that would make any Anthropologie shopper nod in appreciation. Harmoniously mismatched dishware garnishes the breakfast table every morning; in the living room, natural-fiber furniture from budding Colombian designers sits alongside antiques from Davilá’s grandmother’s home, below the watchful eye of family photographs on the wall. Each of the seven rooms, named after Davilá’s nieces and nephews, is unique—the Lucho suite boasts a sunny terrace with a hammock, whereas the Natalia has a dreamy soaking tub right in the bedroom—with four in the main structure of the home, and three in the bright atrium behind it, where sun streams through a tangle of vines hanging from the second-story glass ceiling all the way down to the black-and-white tiled floor below. Casa Legado isn’t the first hotel to call itself your home away from home, but the sentiment here feels more genuine than most. FLASH POINT Give one-day’s notice, and the host can set-up an in-room massage, or a private yoga class in the atrium or garden. +57 300-9108-75, casalegadobogota.com. Doubles starting from about $330.
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Michael Turek/Courtesy Islas Secas Resort
hotel
Islas Secas Resort, Gulf of Chiriqui, Panama
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2022, 2023
A private island resort is one thing. An entire archipelago in one of the most ruggedly beautiful, previously inaccessible parts of the world is a whole other level. Islas Secas, a retreat comprising nine guest cottages and 14 otherwise uninhabited islands in Panama’s Gulf of Chiriqui, is a rare example of the kind of hotel that offers a level of service and privacy that genuinely feels like a private home. As one of a maximum of 18 others, guests can spread out and feel they have the run of the place (and access to the cool, discreet, expert staff) without that awkward “we’re the only people here” feeling. It’s adventurous but not too rugged, eco-minded without being sanctimonious, and luxurious but neither precious nor overly fancy. Proof: The place runs entirely on solar energy, but the air conditioning works perfectly. Spend the day fishing or diving with sharks, then unwind after a fresh-caught dinner with a bottle of crisp, dry rosé while playing chess in a Hemingway-inspired lounge. The rooms and main pavilion were thoughtfully designed by Tom Scheerer, an architect who does low-key, old-school coastal elegance like no one else (he’s also behind the recent revamp of the Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas). Wicker and rattan are well-deployed, fabrics are all crisp natural whites, sage greens and light blues, and everything is indoor-outdoor wherever possible: Each casita wall is constructed with louvered slats to let in the breeze, massive doors slide open and turn the whole room into the chicest screened-in porch ever. Even the shower can be had both ways, depending on which way you position the door. Panama has been emerging in Central America’s luxury tourism market for the past couple of years. Islas Secas marks its arrival. Doubles from $1015 per person, per night (3 night minimum, includes boat transfer, on-site activities, meals, and drinks).
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Courtesy Awasi Iguazú
hotel
Awasi Iguazú, Iguazu Falls, Argentina
$$$
The Santiago de Chile-based Awasi group doesn’t rush things. This, its third venture, was 10 years in the making. The challenge? To deliver a low-impact, personalized experience (as at its Atacama and Patagonia properties) as close as possible to the high-footfall Iguazú Falls. The result, opened in February, is a small lodge on a bluff over the Iguazú River. Surrounded by Atlantic rainforest, with blue morpho butterflies and capuchin monkeys the only neighbors, it has just 14 bright, airy villas built from sustainable hardwoods; all are pristine, pared-back counterpoints to Mother Nature’s clutter, with whitewashed walls, vast white beds, plain textiles and expansive wooden terraces with plunge pools. Expert guides take guests kayaking on the Yacu-i stream and birding in off-radar forests; easy hikes are planned over mocktails laced with yerba maté, the local tea-like brew. The highpoint is, of course, the cascading cataracts themselves, viewed with a private guide at canny times of the day. Back at the lodge, Venezuelan chef Aarón Castillo Telleria balances the requisite Angus steaks Venezuelan chef Aarón Castillo Telleria balances the requisite Angus steaks with flavorsome chilled soups, delicately flavored pacu and surubí fish, and locally grown manioc and plantain. Wines range from robust new Malbecs to floral Torrontés and small-volume blends. Head barman Juan specializes in old-school Argentine apéritifs and digestifs, such as the vermouth-like Hesperidina and more of that yerba maté, this time infused in gin. FLASH POINT Iguazú has always been world-class spectacular; now it has a hotel to match. +56-2 2233 9641; awasiguazu.com. Two-night all-inclusive stay from about $1,940 per person, based on two sharing.

Art Sanchez/Can Bordoy Grand House & Garden
hotel
Can Bordoy Grand House & Garden, Mallorca, Spain
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2021, 2022
Like many special hotels, this one is tricky to find. There are no sign posts. No terrace on the street flowing with hotel guests and a stream of waiters with spritzes. Only the discreet stone archway that leads off the square to what was once a private family home—then a school run by nuns—indicates you have arrived. Can Bordoy today has been entirely renovated by much-in-demand husband-and-wife architects Jaime Oliver and Paloma Hernaiz of OHLAB. Their aim was to respect the building’s rich heritage but to bring it up to date with contemporary notes. There’s a shady courtyard and a long, stone bar with a low-key reception area, a living room with beautiful creeping vines across the ceiling connects to a dining room, and a library with views out to the back. The designers have excelled in filling this space with natural light and drama with a mix of both vintage and new furniture. Their vast, custom-made walnut beds and in-room cocktail bars with integrated stereos are real highlights. The basement spa and rooftop sundeck with 360-degree views and a glass-bottom plunge pool are delightful, as is the Botànic restaurant run by chef Andrés Benitez, focusing on locally sourced organic ingredients. Among the crush of boutique offerings in medieval Palma, Can Bordoy captures the true heart of the place in a way worthy of the moment. FLASH POINT The hotel’s ace in the hole (and a rarity in the city) is a large, secluded garden with café chairs and a swimming pool. +34 871 -871-202; canbordoy.com. Doubles from about $425.
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Courtesy Hotel St. George
hotel
Hotel St George, Helsinki, Finland
$$
Finland's handsome capital has never topped the list of Nordic cities on a traveler's radar. It doesn't have an Old Town like Stockholm. Or the food scene of Copenhagen (though Tommi Tuominnen's mini empire is starting to change that). It didn't even have a hotel doing for the city what The Thief did for Oslo. Until—until—last May, when homegrown hotel group Kamp turned an old newspaper publishers a couple blocks from the water into a modern Grande Dame. The stylish St George walks the line between show pony for local design and emporium of international tastemakers. There is the charmingly minimal blond wood desk and chairs in each sunlit room, where function matches design in a way to make Alvar Aalto proud. Ai Wei Wei's wonderfully bizarre hanging dragon commands the space downstairs from the check-in desks. Down the checkered hallway, a Monocle cafe where sharply dressed Finns tap at laptops and sip strong coffee channels Stockholm but serves the city's most fragrant rye rolls, a Finnish staple. The 18th-century building was originally designed by Onni Tarjanne, who also did the National Theater across town; it's why the grand public bar resembles the old winter gardens, with its canopy of plants and pale blue walls, that were fashionable in the 1700s. It's an appropriate way to modernize the city's past, in a hotel that will finally land it on the traveler's itinerary. FLASH POINT The sleek downstairs sauna has a huge thermal bath and sells Finnish beauty brand Lumiere, which is hard to track down outside the country. +358 9-4246-0011; stgeorgehelsinki.com; Doubles from about $180.
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Courtesy Le Barn
hotel
Le Barn, Moulin de Brétigny, France
$
Parisians are not so unlike Londoners and New Yorkers. Come Friday, they, too, hightail it to the country for 48 hours of blissfully slower living. Their options for where to spend the weekend have been mostly restricted to ancestral manors and castles that require serious mileage to reach—as well as a dress code at dinner. Last summer’s opening of rustic Le Barn changed all that. This former horse-riding academy turned nature camp for grown-ups, 34 miles southwest of Paris, is an extension of the very cool boutique-hotel scene sweeping the city’s north-central arrondissements; one that marries urban taste and country retreat. So much so that the Isabel Marant–wearing crowd drinking at the Hoxton in the Marais on a Wednesday is the same one soaking in Le Barn’s outdoor Nordic baths the following Saturday. Design Studio Be-poles, which was responsible for the louche interiors of Le Pigalle hotel, did a fine job of keeping the countryside in focus here, placing plants throughout and blending raw materials such as corkboard in the rooms, which were used to store grain in the 1950s. Though it’s what’s on the outside that counts: hikes through the surrounding Rambouillet forest, outdoor film screenings, and yoga under the trees. As Paris moves in a direction that feels increasingly hipster, Le Barn is the type of place where those breathing new life into the city go to recharge. FLASH POINT There is no set checkout time on Sundays; don’t rush through a brunch of local charcuterie and cheeses, organic fruit jams, and oven-fresh baguettes and croissants. +33 1-86-38 -00-00; lebarnhotel.com. Doubles from about $165.
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Simon Brown/Courtesy University Arms
hotel
University Arms Hotel, Autograph Collection, Cambridge, England
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
Did Grace Kelly have a sense of humor? If so, you might think of the gorgeously reinvented University Arms in Cambridge as the Grace Kelly of hotels. It’s got that same ravishing combination of fire and ice: the fire courtesy of whimsical interiors by wunderkind Martin Brudnizki; the ice applied with measured classical precision by architect John Simpson. But it’s also marvelously witty, warm, and fun. To those who remember the old dour, turreted Victorian pile that loomed over one side of Parker’s Piece, the common near the town center where the rules of soccer were formulated, the new place will seem all but unrecognizable. Though the rooms, particularly the larger ones overlooking the green, are terrific—respectful to the past without being beholden to it—it’s the public spaces on the ground floor that clinch it. The highlights among these are Tristan Welch’s sprawling, light-flooded contemporary-British restaurant Parker’s Tavern and the cozy, velvet-upholstered bar where you should absolutely order a whisky-heavy Sixth Man, sprinkled with salted-caramel dust, to be enjoyed in the adjoining library. Cambridge has been arguably the smartest town around since about 1209. A mere 800 years later, it has a hotel to match.
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Courtesy Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa
hotel
Royal Champagne Hotel & Spa, Champagne, France
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Just uphill from the pretty village of Hautvillers where Dom Perignon lived and died is architect Giovanni Pace’s stunning refurbishment of a historic coaching inn where Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly overnighted. And, in the pop of an effervescent bubble, the region has its first modern five-star hotel (with the area’s only destination spa), one that's as golden and whimsical as its namesake sparkler. Blonde wood and glass walls render the whole triple-deck interior Champagne-colored and the golden-leafed sculpture hanging in the atrium is truly lovely. Very large bedroom terraces, plus indoor and outdoor pools all offer panoramic views of the world-famous (and now UNESCO World Heritage–listed) vineyards, while the top-floor bar has access to the cellar's 257 different Champagnes, as well as views that look over the vineyards.
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Courtesy Heckfield Place
hotel
Heckfield Place, Hampshire, England
$$ | Gold List 2019, 2022, 2024 Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Heckfield Place is your typically grand country-house hotel. There’s certainly enough of the usual elements to throw you off the scent: the sprawling grounds and manicured gardens, the impressive stately exterior, the sweeping staircase, and walls adorned with oil paintings. But all is not what it seems. For starters, there isn’t a hint of stuffiness or pomp. The team greet guests with a calmness that’s contagious, guiding you about the place with the kind of ease that never feels imposing. Even the uniforms, designed by cult clothing company Egg—all corduroy, linens, and flouncy blouses—are refreshingly unexpected. Bedrooms are stripped back and country comfy without leaning too heavily into the more ubiquitous country-pile aesthetic—creamy oatmeals, subdued greens and pinks and yellows, not a sniff of chintz. And then there’s the food. Both Marle and Hearth, the two restaurants, are overseen by starry chef Skye Gyngell. There’s a farm-to-fork ethos, drawing heavily on the estate farm and kitchen garden for the menus. The latest addition is The Bothy by Wildsmith, a serene, two-floor oasis enveloped in the hotel’s gardens. Years in the making, it’s a deeply soothing space with a gorgeous pool and treatment rooms for hours-long sessions that might include diagnostic kinesiology or abdomen massages. The hot tubs on the deck overlook the grounds, where, in the summer months, you can take a walk around the estate with a picnic or enjoy a dip in the misty lake. In the winter, follow up a session in the waters with a cosy afternoon curled up by the fire in the living room—aim for 4:00 p.m. and wait for a homemade cake to magically appear on a platter before staff dutifully place fat slices on plates to enjoy as a piano tinkles in the corner. From $695. —Sarah Allard
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Courtesy Little Beach House Barcelona
hotel
Little Beach House Barcelona, Spain
$$
It takes imagination and sensitivity for a global brand to turn a much-loved local favorite into a chic little beach hotel without accusations of cultural imperialism. Soho House has done just that with this Barcelona arrival. Originally built in the 1950s and admired for its Art Deco-style appearance, it is situated right on the sand at Garraf—a tiny, off-the-radar stretch of shore half-an-hour’s drive south of Barcelona, cradled by rolling hills covered in scraggy Mediterranean pines. The design team ditched the old hotel’s lino and laminex tables to create a calming concept with handmade, natural-wood decor, combined with a measured dose of the group’s signature hedonism. There are only 17 rooms, including one duplex with a private terrace, so staying here feels more like a cheeky weekend away with your best friends. Everybody greets each other in the restaurant, where lunch is selected from an ice-packed fish counter, or when claiming their striped sunbed on the beach. DJs in the bar—a stunning space where the floor-to-ceiling windows let a sea breeze in—provide gently rocking vibes in the evenings. Massages using Cowshed products are given outdoors on the terrace. The vibe in Garraf is off-beat. With this opening, Soho House injects the town with an alluring dose of urbane sophistication and the right amount of local sensibility. FLASH POINT If the urge for the bright lights of Barcelona hits, there is a shuttle bus between Little Beach House and Soho House Barcelona. +34 935-221-552; littlebeachhousebarcelona.com. Doubles from about $280.
Courtesy Belmond Cadogan Hotel
hotel
Belmond Cadogan Hotel, London, England
$$$
With the hotel buzz in the British capital generally gravitating eastwards, there’s something comforting about Belmond’s reimagining of Chelsea’s Cadogan Hotel. It has quietly seen it all since it opened in 1887 on the corner of Sloane and Pont Streets: from Oscar Wilde’s arrest in 1895 to the Sixties rockers and Eighties supermodels who would flee the King’s Road crowds for a cup of tea and a stroll around Cadogan Place Gardens. It was tired, of course. Following Belmond’s four-year renovation of the five adjoining Queen Anne townhouses—one the old home of socialite Lillie Langtry—now the vibe is understated, marbled elegance but with Saatchi-worthy art and a crystal-encrusted peacock. With just 54 rooms, it’s a quarter of the size of Claridge’s, so staff are expected to know not just your name, but whether you take lemon in your Earl Grey. There are fireplaces in some rooms, and a side entrance makes it feel like a city crashpad (Belmond’s Oxfordshire property Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons being the country pile). Rising Scottish star Adam Handling runs the restaurant, bar, and tearoom, designed with relative restraint by Russell Sage, who also did The Fife Arms. A short British menu hints at Handling’s Gleneagles training, but there’s playfulness alongside the veal sweetbread and Highland wagyu: alt-J on the sound system, and a Jammie Dodger with the strawberry-infused Old Fashioned. Belmond has planted its U.K. flag firmly in a corner of Chelsea that was threatening to ossify, pulling at the classic hotel compass usually pointed at Mayfair. FLASH POINT The tea room is the heart of it all. Wondrous afternoon teas include salt-cod croquettes served next to cozies made by Handling’s mother. +44 207-7048-7141; belmond.com. Doubles from $617.
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Vincent Leroux/Courtesy Epi 1959
hotel
Épi 1959, Ramatuelle, France
$$$
This glitzy Mediterranean playground might not register on the average hipster’s summer-holiday hit list. But last year’s reopening of Épi 1959 could change that. Set away from the hubbub on Ramatuelle beach west of the town proper, and tucked behind the sand dunes, it is the antithesis of loud-money Saint-Tropez. It’s cute, cozy, charming and low-key. There are 10 simple, whitewashed cabins, designed by Madison Cox, the man behind the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech. If it feels like the riviera of Brigitte Bardot’s heyday, that is precisely the point. The Épi first opened in the late 1950s and for decades it was the destination du jour for stars such as Johnny Hallyday before fading from the limelight. Then last year the place was given a spruce by Italian interior designer Monica Damonte. She turned to old pictures and vintage furniture to recreate the feeling of the golden age. Time travel is not at odds with modern luxuries though. There’s a big focus on food, of course (Épi takes its name from épicerie, or grocery). The restaurant serves the most delicious langoustines and rosé, and smoothies can be delivered by the pool before a knockabout on one of the two clay courts. There’s also an old-school games room in which to take a break from the sun over table-soccer. Though it is tough to resist the deep-blue Mediterranean, so close you can hear the lapping waves. This is the riviera, brought back to its roots. FLASH POINT Guests get allocated space at the pool and staff keep a supply of fresh blueberry and watermelon juice coming. +33 9-6366-8267; epi1959.com. Doubles from about $1,000.
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Stefano Scatà/Courtesy Hotel Vilòn
hotel
Hotel Vilòn, Rome, Italy
$$ | Gold List 2020 Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2021
The quiet, confident arrival of the Vilòn gave Rome a boutique hotel to showcase the city’s sharp sophistication, which too often gets lost among its antiquities—or trumped by that of Paris and Milan. In its Adelaide cocktail bar, large-scale black and white prints pop against maroon walls and golden curtains that surely recall the fabulous living rooms of the smart designers along Via di Monserrato, a Gimlet (or three) is a revelation. That is not to say set designer Paolo Bonfini, who exercises his craft with restraint and exquisitely clear vision here, brushed off Rome’s history when transforming this former nunnery into a vibrant 18-room hideaway down a central side street. Rather brilliantly, he found ways to make it feel relevant and not forced, which rarely land so easily in Rome. Rococo-style columns are discreet against mid-century-modern furniture, while the city’s famous monuments are referenced in works by contemporary Florentine photographer Massimo Listri. The result is fresh but mature, and self-assured with no ego; the type of place that is not trying to attract hipsters—as so many now are—but rather the finely tuned 40-year-olds they’ll grow up to be. The Vilòn stylishly captures a vital facet of the direction the city is headed in. Doubles from $525.
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Karel Balas/Courtesy Hôtel des Grands Boulevard
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Hôtel des Grands Boulevards, Paris, France
$$ | Hot List 2018
The third hotel from Paris’s charmingly raffish Experimental Group, who opened the cheeky Grand Pigalle and London’s perky Henrietta after establishing cocktail bars around the world, may be the most irresistible yet. The Hôtel des Grands Boulevards is tucked away in the 2nd Arrondissement, one of the most diverse and dynamic parts of the city. It’s where to find ornate theaters and arcades as well as whimsical textile workshops, and a healthily quirky dose of les flaneurs moving between them all. Staying at this converted 18th-century townhouse places guests properly amongst the muck, and with three bars and restaurants from which to watch the daily life unfold with an elderflower cocktail in hand, naturally. Interior designer Dorothee Meilichzon took her cues from the neighborhood when decking out the 50 rooms with textures, shapes, and colors. Petite guestrooms have luscious greens, blues, and pinks; against this palette the plump all-white beds seem like fluffy, cozy clouds.Tiny wooden stools near windows with ball-gown length drapes create the atmosphere of a Parisian parlor. Though when the bustle of the 2nd all gets a little too much, the ideal escape is on the rooftop, where gin joint The Shed serves a mean vodka with lemongrass to young locals who will no doubt be dressed better than yourself. Paris rarely feels as fun as it does from the inside of a hotel run by a bunch of bartenders. FLASH POINT The space that houses the hotel was built just before the French Revolution on top of an old garden, which is now accessed through a long passageway that cuts through the building. +33 1 85 73 33 33; grandsboulevardshotel.com; doubles from around $210.
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Courtesy Stamba Hotel
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Stamba Hotel, Tbilisi, Georgia
$$
The third installment from Adjara makes the local rock-and-roll hotel group’s Rooms and Fabrika properties—both game-changing, both achingly cool for their time—feel like warm-up acts to headliner Stamba. Occupying a Soviet-era printing house, the hotel struts that building’s original Brutalist bones, from its unpolished concrete beams to its double-height ceilings and gilded bathtubs fit for Tamar the Great. It’s far more glamorous than the cozy, vintage-Brooklyn-style interiors that Rooms ran with in 2005—and the rooms here are much more spacious. The overall feel is far from austere, because of the floor-to-ceiling shelves of antique books, collection of tropical plants that borders on a mini rainforest, and sumptuously upholstered furniture—good luck getting back up after sinking into one of those wool-lined moon chairs. Gadgets and McIntosh stereo systems make it easy to stay behind guest room doors, but then visitors would miss out on the chandeliers and red-clad croupiers of Casino Aviator, which recalls the louche gentlemen’s clubs of the USSR. Drinks on the gambling floor and in the lobby-level Pink Bar put the focus on locally distilled spirits such as Sarajishvili brandy. Any morning-after headaches are cured with an adjarian khachapuri, or egg-crowned cheese bread, baked to order at Stamba Café. Tbilisi has emerged as one of Eastern Europe’s most dynamic cities, and Stamba cranks the energy levels up a notch. FLASH POINT The hotel has its own Bell 505 Jet Ranger X helicopters: the fastest way to hop up to Rooms Hotel Kazbegi, the group’s chic chalet high in the Caucasus. +995 322-02-11-99; stambahotel.com. Doubles from about $200.
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Courtesy Casa Iris
hotel
Casa Iris, Orbetello, Italy
$
While old-school Italian seaside destinations such as Capri and Portofino can seem stuck, Tuscany’s Maremma is shining ever brighter. At the heart of this stretch of long beaches backed by rolling olive-and-wine country is Orbetello, a laid-back town in Grosseto with something of a Spanish feel, scenically set on an isthmus in a coastal lagoon. And at the heart of Orbetello is Casa Iris, this rising destination’s first truly chic place to stay. With the help of Giorgia Cerulli, the interiors eye behind Rome’s G-Rough hotel, owners James Valeri and Matthew Adams have created a one-off design mix: a brilliant blend of Art Deco, mid-century modern, and ’70s eclecticism in the furniture and fittings picked up at shops, fairs, and markets across Italy. And it’s perfectly in keeping with the meticulous spirit of Casa Iris that Valeri and Adams should have asked a specialist who worked on the Sistine Chapel to restore the frescoes, which date from the 18th to early 20th centuries. But what makes Casa Iris really special is that it is essentially a three-bedroom family apartment—with a powder-blue kitchen where breakfast is served, starring homemade jams from the garden of the Valeri family’s Monte Argentario house. Staying here doesn’t feel remotely like checking in to a hotel. It feels like being allowed inside one of Italy’s most stylish private homes. FLASH POINT Get involved in Orbetello’s post-beach aperitivo scene with some persuasive nibbles at Barakà on Via Vincenzo Gioberti. +39 392-529-8010; casairisorbetello.com. Doubles from about $160.
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Gaudenz Danuser/Courtesy Casa Caminada
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Casa Caminada, Graubünden, Switzerland
$$
There used to be a singular motive for skiers in Switzerland’s pinot noir-producing Rhine Valley to ditch the glitz of St. Moritz and head an hour northwest to the village of Fürstenau après their après: Schloss Schauenstein, an understated 16th-century castle with a three-Michelin-starred restaurant. Now its chef, Andreas Caminada, is giving them reason to stay the night. Last October, he opened the exquisite Casa Caminada in a born-again barn on the castle grounds, where rustic ambience is tempered with urban touches, and authenticity replaces the musty luxuries ubiquitous in Swiss mountain-palace hotels. Upstairs, 10 sun-flooded rooms retain original exposed beams, enhanced by reclaimed larchwood parquet floors and furniture custom-made by local carpenters. To soften the masculinity, Patricia Urquiola added pops of refined Italian style, including brass-and-magenta-linen loungers for absorbing sunshine or finishing a novel. It is unexpected and fabulous. The airy new restaurant offers buttery and crunchy maluns (crumb-like dumplings made with shredded potatoes) and walnut tortes baked in a volcanic-stone oven. Casa Caminada places the design and food expected of Milan, 123 miles south, in one of the most glorious natural settings anywhere on earth. FLASH POINT To access the village’s 14th-century Protestant church, use the honor-system key in the box by the cemetery gate. +41 81-632-30-50; casacaminada.com. Doubles from about $200.

Courtesy The Fife Arms
hotel
The Fife Arms, Aberdeen, Scotland
$$ | Gold List 2020 Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Plenty of pubs in Scotland have names like the Flying Stag. The one in the new Fife Arms hotel in the Highland village of Braemar, however, actually has a taxidermy stag, with added swan’s wings, poised not so much in mid-leap as in mid-launch over the bar, like an antlered space shuttle, and the energy here is irresistible. Same goes for the Fife Arms as a whole, down to the shocking-pink cocktail spot, Elsa’s, named after Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli (its turns out she adored the Highlands). The 46-room hotel takes a familiar tartan-clad template and—with love and respect, and even a kind of delicacy—blows it to smithereens. Braemar hasn’t seen the like since Victoria and Albert built the castle at nearby Balmoral. Its owners, Swiss art dealers Manuela and Iwan Wirth, previously hit the bull’s-eye with their gallery-restaurant-hotel in Bruton, Somerset, which has mobilized hundreds of thousands of art lovers since 2009 and transformed the community. The Fife Arms is different, in that it’s primarily a hotel, not an exhibition space—though, bedecked as it is in works by Picasso, Freud, Richter, and so forth, you could be forgiven for thinking of it as one. Even the rooms, from designer Russell Sage, which range in size and budget and bear grand names such as the Duke of Fife Suite, are a mastery of textile and layering. His sense of humor, more blatantly on display at London’s Zetter Townhouse, shines through—and its impact could well be as dramatic.
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Courtesy Brach
hotel
Brach, Paris, France
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2021
The staid 16th arrondissement hasn’t exactly drawn visitors over the years. So it’s a testament to the cool factor of Evok Hotels that it can take a former mail-sorting facility in this bourgeois, residential district and make it le talk of Paris. After a four-year renovation overseen by designer Philippe Starck, the resulting hotel is as much about a lifestyle as it is a place to crash. For one thing, the buzzing restaurant draws fashionable locals from breakfast until the early hours with its patisserie, plates to share, and potent drinks. A first-floor terrace bar lures the pretty people, as does the seasonal rooftop vegetable garden and bar. The subterranean fitness club channels a ’30s boxing gym and had a wait list the minute it opened. Even the swimming pool booms with a killer sound system. The party continues in the rooms, each with its own mini concept store, stocked with pre-made cocktails by the Avantgarde Spirits Company. The design smacks of Starck’s typical sassy eclecticism: walls covered in rich rosewood and leather, African masks and Maasai-style beadwork, and potted cacti next to the bathroom sinks hewn from unfinished blocks of marble. Who knew that the 16th, of all places, would become the city’s next hip address?
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Courtesy Experimental Chalet
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Experimental Chalet, Verbier, Switzerland
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021
Something about the name Verbier feels like it should indeed be a verb as well as a town: ‘To make beautiful and bright in the manner of the famed Swiss Alpine resort.’ Here, valleys wide and deep are arranged for southern exposure and endless skiing. Not that the guys behind the Experimental Chalet can take credit for that. Such stuff is in the hands of God or geology. The French hospitality hotshots burst onto the scene in 2007 with the Experimental Cocktail Club in Paris, which they followed up with wonderful bars, restaurants and hotels in London, New York, and Ibiza. The new place—actually an old place that has been given the Experimental treatment—is a remarkable addition to this great winter playground, a town that is proud of its discretion and sporty credentials. It lacks the loud money excesses of, say, Courchevel, but it possesses a disco soul that’s been captured at this inn. Italian designer Fabrizio Casiraghi redid the ’50s building with Portuguese tiles, pistachio panelling on the walls, and custom-made headboards carved with mountain goats. The restaurant—regional with flair, pairing saucisson cooked in brioche and earthy Pinot Noir—is superb, and the bar better still. This is mid-century hipster with high-altitude flourishes never before seen here, proving that cool has its place among the classic in Verbier. FLASH POINT Don’t resist the call of those pulsing beats coming from the basement. That’s The Farm, the Alpine after-hours institution, dispensing cheesy pop and vintage Champagne since 1971, which the Experimental crew inherited with the premises. +41 27-775-4000; experimentalchalet.com. Doubles from about $355.
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Courtesy Hôtel Lutetia
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Hôtel Lutetia, Paris, France
$$$ | Gold List 2020 Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
After some topsy-turvy years, Left Bank Art Nouveau institution Hôtel Lutetia reopened in 2018, and now looks better than it did when James Joyce wrote bits of Ulysses here, thanks to architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte and collaborators such as Francis Ford Coppola. Determined to honor Lutetia’s glamour, Wilmotte cut the room count down to 184 and enlarged the 47 suites, adding Hermès silk throw pillows, Art Deco-style pieces by Poltrona Frau, and Statuario marble in the bathrooms; the bigger rooms have balconies with views of the Eiffel Tower. Yet in keeping with Lutetia’s social legacy, special attention was given to the public spaces. The famous bar that lured in the luminaries is now Joséphine—named for Baker, also a regular—with a menu that includes Champagne-topped vodka cocktails and croque caviar toasted sandwiches. Chef Patrick Charvet, a veteran of Michelin-starred kitchens, dishes up poached langoustines and oysters soaked in aloe vera at Brasserie Lutetia, while exquisite pastries are served inside the sun-flooded Saint Germain salon just as in Joyce’s day, but now under a graffiti-colored glass roof by conceptual artist Fabrice Hyber. With Paris’s hotel scene skewing more boutique by the minute, Lutetia’s masterful restoration reminds us that this has always been a grande dame city at its core. Doubles from $1,005.
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Courtesy Bankside Hotel, Autograph Collection
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Bankside Hotel, Autograph Collection, London, England
$$
London’s center of gravity wobbles this way and that, but the South Bank has clocked a prime view of the action since Roman ships scudded up the Thames. Though never has it seen so much urban drama as right now. Despite a profanity of high-rises gobbling up the sight lines, the Bankside Hotel is appealingly succinct at just six stories behind Blackfriars Bridge, angled to catch the light. It’s been curated by Dayna Lee, the film-set designer for Dances With Wolves. What it brings to mind, though, isn’t Hollywood but the set of a ’60s TV show, with bob wigs and mod dresses. It’s all those sheer white walls and honeycomb concrete, jaunty Scandi chairs, pottery shelves with lineups of bone-white vases, and abstract shapes in every direction. One of the standout pieces, however, is the ceramic mural running along one wall of the restaurant and bar, picking out scenes from riverside history: Viking boats, fishing, and the Great Fire. Pick up Tom Ford sunnies and even engagement rings from the elevator-side vending machine. There are water-carafe stations on each floor, single-use plastics are banished, and key cards are made from paper. A mezzanine gallery with arts titles for browsing leads onto a garden terrace—views of the river and St. Paul’s are a little restricted, but you’re still in the box seats up here. There’s a midcentury positivity, a festival of British optimism; this is a thoughtful pied-à-terre hotel for dedicated followers of London.
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Richard James Taylor/Courtesy Belmond Cap Juluca
hotel
Belmond Cap Juluca, Anguilla
$$$ | Gold List 2021 Readers' Choice Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
When Cap Juluca opened on a mile-long white crescent here in 1988, it was widely considered—to quote its sanguine American-born owners—“the best hotel on the best beach in the Caribbean.” The domed villas, a few with then-scarce plunge pools, brought worldly glamour to a squiggle of an island that had only recently acquired roads and drew discretion-seeking jet setters from chockablock St. Martin. Families flew to Cap J year after year, while major handshake deals would go down on Maundays Bay, and legendary parties would keep the drinks flowing at Pimms restaurant. Eventually, of course, the crowd moved on, and the owners sold the property to Belmond in 2017—just before Hurricane Irma barreled in. No matter: In a $130 million refurb, Rottet Studio added five new villas and recast the interiors, replacing the Moroccan carpets and lanterns with soft linens, rattan, and seagrass. While Pimms is still here, dishing out a neo-Caribbean tasting menu, the real star is Cip’s, an offshoot of the Belmond Cipriani’s Venetian lagoonside restaurant, serving the best grilled-lobster pasta in the Leewards. Cap Juluca shows that classics can be reinvented, and be just as alluring as the original.
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Durston Saylor/Courtesy Rosewood Baha Mar
hotel
Rosewood Baha Mar, Nassau, Bahamas
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
There are a few givens we look forward to with beachside mega hotels. Water toys—paddleboards, overwater trampolines, jet skis—are fun and plentiful. There’s a pool for every type, from child-free to swim-up-bar to infinity. A Rolodex’s worth of restaurants and bars means what you want to eat is always available. The year-and-a-half-old Rosewood Baha Mar, with its 237 rooms overlooking Nassau’s waters, nails all of the above on a smaller, more intimate scale. It also pulls off something exceedingly rare for its genre: It captures the destination in a way that goes beyond conch-fritter shacks off the beach path (which we also love). For a satisfying glimpse of art, stroll the complex, where the 2,500-piece collection including stained-glass sculpture and photography is all local and curated by John Cox, formerly of the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas. In fact, it’s likely guests will meet the affable Cox while here. He heads up Baha Mar’s creative space, where a selection of local artists craft bags and clothing in a large studio on the property’s first floor. This mix of locality, cerulean sea, and ultra-private intimacy makes Rosewood Baha Mar the easiest place to stop in to for winter sun without becoming a total beach bum or one of the hoardes—although if you're into it, there's easy access to a vast casino in the Grand Hyatt, golf and tennis courts, and hopping SLS hotel nightlife.
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Barbara Kraft/Courtesy Montage Los Cabos
hotel
Montage Los Cabos, Mexico
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2021
Located on 39 quiet acres of beachfront between the overdeveloped hotel zones of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, Montage looks out on the serene, divinely swimmable waters of Santa Maria Bay. As impressive is the fact that all of the 122 guest rooms, suites, and casas (not just top-tier rooms) have ocean views, expansive terraces with daybeds, dining areas, and outdoor showers—just the sort of breezy indoor/outdoor setup you want on a beach holiday. And in a town where things can go from place-defining to cliché quickly, Montage gets it right. Interiors have a Mexican 2.0 aesthetic that leans into local materials while executed in a sophisticated desert palette (lots of native wood, earth-toned woven throws and hanging tapestries, and creamy sandstone), and landscaping embraces native, drought-resistant plants like agave, flowering desert figs, and saguaros. The real treat, though, is to sit by the pool with a book and michelada, knowing that the Pacific is there waiting when you’re ready for your plunge.
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Luis Gallardo/Courtesy Hotel Amparo
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Hotel Amparo, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019
This incredibly pretty pueblo is Mexico’s artistic epicenter. But UNESCO-protected San Miguel, two-and-a-half hours northwest of the capital, had been resting on its Crayola-colored laurels, overlooking the trends of its creative counterparts around the globe. Enter first-time hoteliers Mariana Barran de Goodall and Taylor Goodall. After getting married here four years ago, they bought a 300-year-old former mayor’s residence in the cobblestoned center and transformed it into a guesthouse with cheerful touches to appeal to cool-hunting travelers. A lovely courtyard filled with bougainvillea, towering palms, and a cobalt-blue-tiled fireplace opens up to a salon with a mezcal bar and a café. Four stately ground-floor rooms have bronze four-poster beds decorated with Oaxacan textiles, paintings from the couple’s private art collection, and vintage furniture sourced from Europe. Upstairs is the fifth room, with a mural by Argentine artist Lucas Rise, steps from the rooftop restaurant Bar Margaret, which serves Latin-Southern small plates such as shrimp and grits topped with pico de gallo and a curated wine list heavy on labels from nearby natural wineries. Hotel Amparo knows exactly how to honor the history and artistry that have been the calling cards of San Miguel for decades, while making it modern. FLASH POINT Locanda will open in a parlor off the entrance by midsummer, with a rotating menu of handmade pastas and Sicilian wines. +52 1-415-152-0819; hotelamparo.com. Doubles from about $200.
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Courtesy Manapany
hotel
Manapany, St. Barts
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
Unique on an island well known for profligate excess, Parisian Anne Jousse, owner of a portfolio of small hotels in France, sought to introduce more than a modicum of eco-responsibility to St. Bart’s. The glamorous hotelier had fallen for Manapany, a once-upon-a-time chic spot on the sleepy north shore, on family trips. She bought the place in 2016 and initiated a top-to-bottom reconstruction of its 4.2-acre beachfront on Anse des Cayes. Several years and one major hurricane later, it’s been reborn. Water is heated by solar panels, no chemicals are used in cleaning or maintenance, towels are made of woven bamboo, and only electric cars are permitted beyond reception. Yet Jousse’s endeavor isn’t lacking a lick of luxe. All 43 sea-view rooms and villas—eight directly on the sand, others a mighty but rewarding 80 steps above and with enormous terraces—are gracefully decorated by Parisian designer François Champsaur, with walls painted peppery red, turmeric orange, mint green, or ultramarine blue. Impossibly attractive staff serve artfully crafted rhum agricoles at barefoot dinners, and a Dr. Hauschka–supplied beachside spa has raised St. Bart’s wellness game. With its design ethos and ecological focus, Manapany represents the next wave of Caribbean hotels.
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Courtesy Punta Caliza
hotel
Punta Caliza, Isla Holbox, Mexico
$$
Word may now be out about this tiny isle off the Yucatán Peninsula, but that has not compromised Holbox’s subtle charms. Along its northern edge, a string of taco shacks and palapa-style hotels with thatched roofs and adobe walls stretches across the uninterrupted sands. One block inland, this phenomenally well-designed hideaway stands out from the rest. Guadalajara-based Estudio Macías Peredo kept the thatch but placed it on top of 12 slick villas of red bark and limestone stucco, inspired by a Mayan building technique known as chukum, arranged in the shape of a triangle. The knockout element is what fills the open space between them. Instead of a traditional courtyard or terrace, Peredo created a swimming pool where the water, the same milky green as the Caribbean, laps right up against the villas’ cedarwood doors. Yet for all its style, Punta Caliza retains the island’s relaxed, flip-flops-at-dinner ease. The friendly owner, Cuauhtémoc Muñoz, is quick to share an icy Corona and a chat with guests after mornings spent on the hotel’s private beach. Breakfasts of fresh orange juice, chilaquiles, and tropical fruit are set up poolside, and insanely fresh octopus ceviche is served in coconut husks. FLASH POINT Head to the bar inside the adjacent tower at sunset for incredible views over the colorful sea. +52 99-8800-0119; puntacaliza.com. Doubles from about $210.
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Courtesy Casa Pueblo Tulum
hotel
Casa Pueblo Tulum, Mexico
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019
In a clear indication that the landscape in Tulum is shifting, its trendiest address right now is miles from the powdery sands bohemians came for two decades ago. Derek Klein, who opened barefoot-funky bar Gitano here in 2013, wanted to create a space where the creativity that has been pushed off the waterfront due to development could thrive. A 10-minute bike ride from the beach right at the entrance to Tulum town, his stylish Casa Pueblo has a chalkboard-like dark stucco façade and unpolished wooden shutters. Inside it is open-plan and airy, appropriately communal for the set of wandering and local journalists, techies, and designers who share the long wooden tables and laze around the salt-water pool. The design game is high: sharp Caribbean sun warms the black-slate walls through the massive atrium, while a profusion of palms and philodendrons create shady corners for hiding out in. Klein drove all over the country to source top ceramics and weavings to place throughout the hacienda-style rooms—terra cotta vases from Chiapas are particular favorites. The food is served in red clay plates from Puebla and is as fresh and colorful as the fruit-filled mezcal cocktails. The wifi is the best in town—especially important in a place where digital nomads need to switch on and switch off.
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Courtesy Chablé Maroma
hotel
Chablé Maroma, Riviera Maya, Mexico
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
This may quite possibly be the only hotel in Mexico that combines the level of wellness travelers now hop planes for with the country’s trademark sugary beaches. It has 70 neutral-palette suites, each with its own pool, terrace, and palm-shrouded outdoor rain shower. And let’s not forget its access to Riviera Mayakoba’s powdery beach. True to the brand, Maroma’s bright spa remains deeply rooted in Mayan healing traditions (the temazcal ceremony, led by a local healer, is the real-deal, requiring a two-hour commitment). While your schedule in the Yucatán is packed with fitness classes and spa sessions, Maroma encourages time spent sipping margaritas by the infinity pool, as any Mexican resort should. Chef Jorge Vallejo of Mexico City’s top-ranked Quintonil oversees the menus, sourcing ingredients from on-site ka’anches, Mayan gardens. Seafood is the star at Maroma, showcased at the rooftop raw bar and at casual restaurant, Kaban. The tasting menu-only restaurant Bu’ul is more ambitious, with regional dishes like mamey fruit tartare topped with glazed escamoles, surprisingly tasty ant larvae, which will challenge (and wow) your palate.
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Chase Daniel/Courtesy The Line
hotel
The LINE Austin, Texas
$$
Sydell, the red-hot group behind the Freehand in Miami and NoMad in New York knew they had to be bold to open in Austin. This is Liz Lambert territory, after all, matriarch of louche, petite boutiques done with ease and style. Their LINE, on the other hand, is big. Texan-style big. We are talking 428 rooms big. Though with Sydell’s knack for transforming spaces into landmarks of urban sophistication, it comes off as intimate and considered. Inside a modernist mid-century building, formerly the Crest Inn and known amongst city old timers for its in-house jazz recording studio, guest rooms are done up in neutral, earthy tones and have original works and books by Texas artists. (In a nod to Austin’s growing visual arts scene, the LINE also has an artist residency program.) But the biggest selling point is location. The LINE is in the heart of the heart of downtown, a former dead zone where suits packed up at 5 and went straight home. The Line, like Lambert’s San Jose did for South Congress in 1999, is changing that. Designer Sean Knibb and on-the-ground partner Michael Hsu brought the outdoors in public spaces—most notably Arlo Grey, a fine dining restaurant and bar helmed by Top Chef winner Kristen Kish—with natural materials such as concrete, canvas, blond and dark woods, and tropical plants spilling from hanging brass pots. Then there's Veracruz All Natural for some of Austin’s best barbacoa and al pastor tacos, Alfred's, a walk-up lobby coffee shop, and P6, a rooftop bar, designed to feel like a greenhouse thanks to even more potted plants. It has one of the best views of Congress Bridge—and Austin's bats, which fly out from under the bridge at dusk—in Austin.
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Courtesy El Rey Court
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El Rey Court, Santa Fe, New Mexico
$
The historic roadside motel is a particularly definitive piece of Americana, a challenging romantic notion to mess with. Take the modern makeover too far, and you lose the impromptu, drive-up magic of a time when maps—and arguments in the car—unfolded like cozy blankets for weary navigators. Not enough, and there’s the risk of it bordering on seedy. Motels are having a massive moment right now, and El Rey is the gold standard for how to do them right. Here, Santa Fe lands an 86-room update to the ‘30s El Rey Inn on Route 66 that’s true to its one-of-a-kind kiva fireplace and pine-scented sense of place. Like the sun-dried mud and straw architecture under the whitewashed walls, Santa Fe-style earthiness underlines everything here. For their redesign, Jay and Alison Carroll spent a year collecting pieces reflecting the elemental, tactile aesthetic of a prehistoric desert landscape that inspired modernists such as Georgia O’Keeffe and Alexander Girard. The New Mexico palette plays out in organic and geometric forms: ceramic lamps by Wannamaker Pottery in Arroyo Seco; hand-woven tapestry headboards by Centinela Traditional Arts in Chimayo. It says a lot that the revamped El Rey also attracts locals—and at night, in a town where most food and drink is scarce after 8 p.m. This motor lodge is a thoughtful reimagination of classic American cool, in a southwestern city, that should never only be seen as a drive-through. FLASH POINT The new La Reina mezcal and tequila bar is the place to gather around the fire every night of the week. (505) 982-1931; elreycourt.com. Doubles from $110.
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Courtesy Perry Lane Hotel, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Savannah
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Perry Lane Hotel, A Luxury Collection Hotel, Savannah, Georgia
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2023
Perry Lane opened in May 2018 and became a draw almost immediately for those tapping into the city’s increasingly creative happenings. It’s set in two buildings facing each other across Perry Lane, and at first glance, you aren't quite sure if they’re new structures or renovated historic ones—the architecture blends in so well (they're new). Inside, you’ll spot a library with a piano, leather chairs, and plantation shutters, updated with expansive art collection, a jewel-box of an elevator dressed in tropical wallpaper, and a rooftop bar and pool with some of the best views of downtown.
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Courtesy Hotel Jaoquin
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Hotel Joaquin, Laguna Beach, California
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019
Until last fall, anyone seeking a cozy place in Laguna Beach would have gotten as far as the imposing Monarch Beach Resort before realizing they should have hit Malibu instead. But now, pull up to this Californian dream of an inn—a space that exists somewhere between bungalow, motor lodge, and your best friend’s beach house—to find a suntanned crowd sipping beers on sofas by the fire in the indoor-outdoor living room. The vibe is relaxed, even by Southern California standards. Owner Paul Makarechian, who has a string of small hotels on the West Coast, wanted Joaquin to be a place to drop in to: barefoot, rule-free. Staff are cheery; guests will know everyone’s first name by the end of the weekend—including George, Joaquin’s resident adventure guru, who is likely to stop by during dinner to see who wants to go kayaking on the Pacific the next day. The lived-in charm is folded into the design, too. Robert McKinley, who did Montauk’s sunny Surf Lodge, picked up vintage chairs and oil paintings at flea markets in Normandy and tore down ceiling panels to leave exposed rafters in rooms. The food may be the only departure from the designer-surf-lodge narrative. But then, when Leo Bongarra, formerly of L.A.’s Sunset Tower Hotel, is whipping up octopus carpaccio to turn that best friend’s beach house into a Beverly Hills dinner party, no one complains. Finally, the boutique scene has landed on this otherwise hyper-developed stretch of classic California coast.
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Courtesy Freehand New York
hotel
Freehand New York, New York
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2021, 2022
It’s a given that young visitors to New York don’t want to blow their budget on a fancy hotel room. Better to book something that’s at least clean, comfortable, and strategically located, and spend the extra cash on that restaurant everyone has been talking about. Freehand takes this compromise and somehow manages to make it feel sexy and stylish. Rooms, with queens, kings, or bunk setups for four, are basic—verging on dorm-like—but brightened up with artwork that sometimes snakes across the walls and ceilings. Like the model that Ian Schrager engineered with Morgans Hotel in the 1980s, here it’s all about the public spaces, which the design studio Roman and Williams filled with glossy tiles, dark woods, and walls in deep turquoise, with quirky touches such as sheepskin rugs and plants in mismatched ceramic pots. Most importantly, there’s a feast of food and drink options: an outpost of award-grabbing cocktail joint Broken Shaker on the roof; a to-go counter off the lobby, an offshoot of downtown favorite breakfast spot the Smile; two recently opened restaurants and a Southwestern-inspired new bar. Freehand captures everything travelers come to New York for, under one well-designed, well-priced roof.
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Courtesy Palihotel Culver City
hotel
Palihotel Culver City, California
$$
Boutique brand Palisociety is quietly creating a mini empire of pretty patterns and breezy living room-style salons around greater L.A., having opened four hotels with less than 50 rooms from Santa Monica to West Hollywood in the past decade (a fifth arrives soon). Culver City, a Westside neighborhood of old film studios that’s having a creative renaissance, marks Pali’s entry into an emerging Los Angeles scene. The hotel rises above a residential corner with walls painted like the brand’s signature wallpaper, topped with a neon sign. Something about the design, which lands on the smarter side of kitsch, with heavy woods, flannel blankets, and groovy floral prints, recalls the classic, ‘60s Frankie Avalon film Beach Blanket Bingo. Yet there are no teen idols cutting a rug in Pali’s indigo-blue outdoor bar. Instead the hotel is drawing in the cool kids from Silver Lake who have finally started taking Culver City seriously and who are likely to be discussing the latest detox over mushroom sandwiches and salad Niçoise at its Simonette restaurant. As the Los Angeles hotel landscape is starting to mature quickly, Pali’s fun, young vibe is a refreshing counterpoint that taps into the SoCal spirit in a way big-wig arrivals just can’t.
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Courtesy Caldera House
hotel
Caldera House, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021, 2023
Slopeside bragging rights weren’t enough for Wes Edens, the billionaire hedge-fund titan and visionary behind Caldera House. His eight-suite dream hotel at Jackson Hole had to be tramside, with north-facing rooms actually looking out upon Big Red, the 100-passenger aerial shuttle going up and down the peaks. Edens and his three ski-addicted business partners spent six years and nearly $100 million building their ultimate adventure base, culminating in a collection of penthouse-like suites that feel like private chalets masquerading as a hotel. L.A.-based studio Commune and local architects Carney Logan Burke collaborated on the American Craftsman-meets-alpine-hideaway interiors, and perks include an on-site gear shop and the largest ski lockers in the country. Wanting to embrace the community, Edens opened an outpost of universally loved Italian restaurant Old Yellowstone Garage on the second floor and curated a team of regional legends, including Olympic skiers, to help create guest experiences.
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The Hoxton
hotel
The Hoxton, Williamsburg, New York
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021, 2023
Last fall, when the Hoxton plunked itself down on Williamsburg’s Wythe Avenue—the neighborhood’s unofficial hotel strip—it was as much for New Yorkers as for visitors. Cases in point: a quirky, retro lobby that’s perfect for long, lazy Sunday afternoons; an events space that has hosted, among other things, a pop-up tattoo studio; a recently opened rooftop bar (Laser Wolf). The U.K.-based Ennismore designed the hotel to feel extremely Brooklyn, dotting it with locally sourced vintage furniture and bookshelves displaying hefty tomes on contemporary art, and ’70-style chandeliers hanging from the lofty ceiling. A brand-new restaurant will touch down soon—K’Far, where renowned Philadelphia chef Michael Solomonov serves all-day menus alongside a full bar and a bakery with takeaway goods. Upstairs, the 175 rooms, like the ones at the Hoxton in Paris, are not massive but fit king-size beds and have views of either the Manhattan or Brooklyn skyline.
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Courtesy The Inn at Kenmore Hall
hotel
The Inn at Kenmore Hall, Richmond, Massachusetts
$$
Former J. Crew creative director Frank Muytjens and his partner, chef and artist Scott Edward Cole, bought this 18th-century school house in 2017 and spent the next year fixing it up into a B&B that far exceeds anything else in this neck of the Berkshires. The duo painted the walls of each guestroom themselves (no two are the same) in rich, moody Benjamin Moore shades and sourced much of the elegantly eclectic furniture and objects from their personal collection and local shops such as Sandy Klempner, adding lush linens by Matteo and blankets from Faribault Woolen Mill. A color scheme of camel, navy, grey, and olive, and touches of wool and leather, were inspired by Mutyjens’ menswear career. There are fireplaces in the front and back parlor rooms, a free bar with all the drinks fixings, chessboards, and an impressive collection of art books and back issues of The Face to flick through. A short drive away in North Adams is the peerless MASS MoCA with its collection of masterful contemporary art, while the Tanglewood performance space is the summer residence of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Yet even nights of Wagner hardly compare to mornings back at the inn, where Muytjens pours the coffee, Cole bakes pastries, and they both whip up granola and eggs to order. If you’re lucky, their sweet Vizla pup, Dutch—the unofficial concierge—will show up, too. This is the high-taste country estate to stay in while exploring the arts finds of the Berkshires. FLASH POINT Room Three has a deep charcoal-painted master bathroom with a fireplace and freestanding tub, which is hard to leave. (413) 698-8100; theinnatkenmorehall.com. Doubles from about $355.
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Blackberry Mountain
hotel
Blackberry Mountain, Walland, Tennessee
$$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2021, 2023
While every hotel now trades on its experiential offerings, only the very best have the talent to follow through with resonance and meaning. Blackberry Mountain, a ground-breaking adventure-and-wellness retreat in rural Tennessee, knows that experiences alone aren’t enough; experienced people are crucial, too. This property comes from the family behind the wholesomely ground-breaking Blackberry Farm, which transformed the U.S.’s foodie-escape scene. And like its sister hotel, this 36-room mountain retreat makes a point of hiring staffers who are extremely good at what they do, whether trail running or vinyasa yoga, mountain-biking or mushroom foraging. Naturalist Boyd Hopkins has traced every corner of the 5,200-acre Smoky Mountain wilderness—he takes guests scrambling up, up, up to Cat’s Paw Ridge in search of bobcat and black bear. Master potter Polly Ann Martin can teach even the clumsiest newbie to throw a near-perfect vase, while a deep-dive consultation with Dr. Jill Beasley, Blackberry’s naturopath, will have guests wishing they could get her on speed-dial for when they return home. Inside the stone-and-timber cottages are roaring fires and floor-to-ceiling windows for gazing at the misty blue peaks of the Smokies. But the most memorable part of this singular playground—even more than the unspoiled surroundings—are the unforgettable people who bring it to life.
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Laure Joliet/Courtesy Kimpton La Peer Hotel
hotel
Kimpton La Peer Hotel, Los Angeles, California
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2018, 2020
This West Hollywood hangout confirms that boutique group Kimpton has the design chops to rival the NoMads and Firmdales of the hotel world. In large part that is down to the bold aesthetic of the interiors by Gulla Jónsdóttir, a West Hollywood resident who channeled the lava fields and waterfalls of her native Iceland with a frosty grey-and-black palette in the guest rooms and lobby, with leather walls, bulbous light fixtures, and a collection of Saba sofas. Bright blooms from star florist Eric Buterbaugh undercut the heaviness of it all. Things perk up outdoors, where a sun-flooded bar that’s already a hit with the cool kids of West Hollywood wraps around the small swimming pool. Artworks from graffiti pieces by Retna to a topographical installation of the city are on display behind the front desk. Even the walls of the elevator are covered in floral murals by Japanese graphic artist and Apple collaborator Kahori Maki. Staff may let you ride it all the way to the top to peek at Jónsdóttir’s nature-inspired wood, metal and stone furniture in the 1,400-square-foot penthouse. As West Hollywood continues its reinvention as a design district, Kimpton La Peer is a worthy anchor of it all.
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Nicole Franzen
hotel
Shinola Hotel, Detroit, Michigan
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023
New independent hotels have played a vital part in Detroit’s regeneration. Though none embraces the city’s past, present and future as holistically as Shinola. Of course, there’s the fact that it sews together two old buildings on central Woodward Avenue: the brick-fronted, 1915 TB Rayl Co. department store and a former Singer sewing-machine factory (more recently, a wig shop). But there is also the fact that it uses contemporary elements to highlight the city’s history. Surrounding the check-in desk, floor-to-ceiling panels woven by local artist Margo Wolowiec represent important Detroit moments: graffiti, urban farms, Martin Luther King’s raised hand during his 1963 Walk to Freedom march. There’s a bustling living room instead of a lobby, where art, curated by the Library Street Collective, covers almost every square inch of wall, including a giant glittering sequined piece by Nick Cave. Interiors are chic yet relaxed, with plush velvet sofas, cool marble surfaces and curated help-yourself book shelves. Chef Andrew Carmellini shines in the tile-clad southern Italian restaurant San Morello, and the Evening Bar is moody and beguiling. This landscape-changing arrival from the eponymous Detroit-based watch brand lets people know that the city’s hotel game has been officially upped. FLASH POINT In every guest room there are Shinola products to make you a convert: a Runwell desk clock and turntable, and a beautiful striped alpaca throw, designed exclusively for the hotel. (313) 356-1401; shinolahotel.com. Doubles from $190.
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Jennifer Hughes/Courtesy Eaton DC
hotel
Eaton DC, Washington, D.C.
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2019
Billed as an activist hotel when it opened in 2018, this property combines the Eaton Workshop—a hub for innovators, artists and grassroots social projects—with a new-age approach to wellness and destination restaurants. Sliding doors separate the black brick exterior from the naturally-lit lobby, reportedly modeled on Swiss bus terminals from the 1960s. The influence shows in the earthy tones, swirling floor patterns and low-slung leather and velour furniture. There’s a working radio station on one side which broadcasts discussions on relevant social issues, and the check-in desk is decorated with crystals. Located downtown, it’s a five-minute stroll from the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Franklin Square Park, and only 15 minutes from the White House.
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Courtesy Hotel Peter and Paul
hotel
Hotel Peter & Paul, New Orleans, Louisiana
$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2020, 2021
Of all the boutique hotels that have landed in New Orleans over the past few years, none gets into the bones of the city like this one. Beyond the heavy mint-green doors, the foyer smells of gardenias. It’s bright, airy, colorful, with a canary-yellow check-in counter and equally bright welcome. Star design team Ash NYC has revived the former 19th-century Catholic church, schoolhouse, convent, and rectory in the boho Marigny neighborhood, just northeast of the French Quarter and a walk from the sax-trumpet-clarinet licks of jazz epicenter Frenchmen Street. As with other Ash NYC hotels—The Dean, in a 1912 clergy house in Providence; the Siren, filling a Renaissance Revival building in Detroit—this place is meant to double as a destination, with sophisticated communal spaces that beg to be sat in with a chicory coffee or a Sazerac. In a city of sensory overload, Hotel Peter & Paul is the anti–Bourbon Street, where the bed linen is crisp—and a little austere, like a convent holdover—and the crowd at its Elysian Bar, brought to you by homegrown wine bar Bacchanal, is European-house-party cool.
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Benoit Linero/Courtesy NoMad Los Angeles
hotel
NoMad Los Angeles, California
$$ | Readers' Choice Awards 2020
It’s remarkable how much Downtown L.A. can feel like New York City. The height of its structures. The grid. The fact that in peak summer buildings here sweat in a way native New Yorkers would recognize—but never feel homesick for. Today, cultural signposting is driving this home even more. As Downtown’s museums, restaurants and hotels more closely resemble that cityscape out east, the NoMad cements this area as L.A.’s hub for urban cool. Like its sibling in Manhattan, the hotel called on Jacques Garcia to add his flair to the interiors. His trademark, heavy, layered, tactile approach might seem like the antithesis of where we would want to be on a hazy Los Angeles Sunday. But his more-is-more approach completely does justice to this Twenties building. The hotel so blatantly channels Old Hollywood glamour that, had a designer tried to spin it into a sun-kissed dreamland, it would not have worked. Garcia’s green and purple velvet salons, and 241 elegant guest rooms, seem like exactly the type of place Hepburn and Bogart would hang out. On Fridays an after-work and pre-dinner set gather by the rooftop pool and in the lobby bars before heading off to explore the brilliant food scene that is giving New York a run for its money. NoMad has a level of cosmopolitan refinement that feels right in Los Angeles now.
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Courtesy Sands Hotel & Spa
hotel
Sands Hotel & Spa, Indian Wells, California
For a long time after its Fifties and Sixties heyday, Palm Springs was in a mid-century-design time warp, frozen in a world of extremes—Bacchic pool parties and staid games of golf. Over the past few years, though, a different energy has emerged, with young Angelenos choosing the town as a drivable weekend destination. A different type of traveler has followed—one seeking sun but also wanting to hike in Joshua Tree, catch live music at Pappy & Harriet’s and get inspired at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Sands, a reimagined Fifties motel, has this more worldly visitor in mind, like Rossi and The Rowan did the year before. Interior designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard, sought after for his ability to color with wild abandon, applied his flair here: bubble-gum-pink walls, Warhol banana-yellow against black and white. He channeled another desert 6,000 miles away with Moroccan zellige and ceramic tiles, kitting out the 46 adults-only rooms with Beni Ourain rugs, ikat upholstery and zebra-striped furniture, and shading the chaises longues at the pool with Bedouin-tent-style cabanas. But not forgetting Sands is in the Sonoran not the Saharan desert, there are just enough Hollywood nods to bring you back: mirror-backed liquor cabinets in the rooms; an obvious homage to the Beverly Hills Hotel in the leaf-print wallpaper of the Pink Cabana restaurant; and photographs of stars including Farrah Fawcett. This is next-level Americana escapism, with a global influence. FLASH POINT Next door at The Nest, a swinging Rat Pack-era haunt, dancers of all ages still sweat it out till the wee hours. (760) 321-3771; sandshotelandspa.com. Doubles from about $249
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